Appanna rocks Andhra with maiden five-wicket haul
A round-up of the first day's play of the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy Super League matches
Cricinfo staff
25-Dec-2006
KP Appanna wrecked Andhra with a maiden five-wicket haul as the hosts, sitting pretty at 187 for 2, collapsed dramatically to 224 for 9 by the end of the opening day's play at Anantapur. Appanna, the 18-year old left-arm spinner playing in his first season, induced Venugopal Rao, who was involved in a 125-run partnership with Satya Kumar Varma, to edge behind in the 80th over to trigger the collapse. He picked a wicket in each of his next three overs to push Andhra to the brink before coming back to claim the ninth wicket in the last over of the day. Both Andhra and Karnataka have 10 points and are vying for the top spot in the Group.
Ajit Bhoite and Rakesh Patel snared seven victims between them as Haryana's batting caved in, yet again, easily. Patel struck in the first over to set the tone for the day. Haryana batsmen couldn't stitch together a purposeful partnership - 47 was the highest - as Bhoite, the offspinner, spun out the middle order. Joginder Sharma grabbed two wickets as Baroda reached 41 for 2 by the end of the opening day. Baroda are placed third in the group with nine points while Haryana are behind them with seven points.
Sourav Sarkar starred on his debut with a four-wicket haul as Maharashtra were reduced to 171 for 7 before bad light curtailed play at Eden Gardens. Opting to bat first, Maharashtra struggled from the onset, losing the openers within eight overs. Ranadeb Bose supported Sarkar and the two seamers left Maharashtra tottering at 71 for 6. The visitors rallied back through a patient 99-run partnership between Sridharan Sriram, who moved from Tamil Nadu this season, and Satyajit Satbhai. Slowly they lifted Maharashtra out of the hole but Sarkar came back to trap Satbhai and put Bengal on top at the end of the first day.
Rohit Sharma hit his maiden first-class ton, an unbeaten 102, to propel Mumbai to a comfortable 283 for 5 at the Wankhede Stadium. Amol Muzumdar and Sahil Kukreja also compiled half-centuries as Mumbai chugged along merrily towards a big total. Mumbai are wallowing at the bottom of the group and stand on the brink of being relegated to Plate.
Vikram Solanki and Nikhil Doru hit patient half-centuries to push Rajasthan to 217 for 5 at the end of the first day's play in Jaipur. Rajesh Sharma, the offspinner, grabbed four wickets as Punjab didn't allow Rajashtan to run away with the game. Both Solanki and Doru applied themselves, consuming 360 balls between them for 127 runs. Though Dinesh Mongia didn't pick up any wicket, he supported Sharma by sending down 26 miserly overs and giving away just 34 runs. Sharma ended up with figures of 4 for 67 in 30 overs.
Fuelled by an unbroken 150-run partnership between Shitanshu Kotak and Cheteswar Pujara, Saurashtra reached a position of strength at 284 for 3. While Kotak's was a cautious effort, his 92 coming in 258 balls, Pujara raced along to 85, with the help of 14 fours, in 130 balls. Ashish Nehra claimed two wickets in succession to leave Saurashtra at a wobbly 58 for 2 but Kotak stitched together two purposeful partnerships, with Sagar Jogiyani and Pujara, to lift the hosts out of trouble. Jogiyani made 61 and added 76 runs with Kotak before falling to Ishant Sharma.
An unbeaten hundred by Ramaswamy Prasanna rescued Tamil Nadu from a struggling 167 for 6 to reach a respectable 267 for 8 by the end of the opening day's play at Chepauk. Rudra Pratap Singh and Praveen Kumar picked two wickets apiece to leave the hosts tottering but Prasanna added 90 runs with Yo Mahesh to pull them out of trouble. However, RP Singh came back to remove Mahesh as UP ended the day on an advantage.